Footy day

Today was the last day of kinder and daycare for the term (for my kids anyway) and as we head into the AFL finals, both kinder and daycare ran footy fever days, complete with lunch orders of pies, sausage rolls and snags. All kids got to dress up in their team colours.

In our household, I am staunch Collingwood and Mark is Geelong...so you can imagine what this weekend will be like for us (and I'm praying it is not a repeat of the 2007 finals).

Ahh.....brings joy to my heart. Collingwood from the cradle to the grave. Mark just doesn't get it. As long as I breathe, my kids will barrack for the Magpies.

GO PIES!

baby Bella

Just to get over a god awful day yesterday....thought I'd post a picture of little Bella. 13 weeks now - 3 months! Cripes but the time is flying! Thanks to all that sent words of comfort for our dreadful day yesterday. As I said, Tottie was an old dog and it wasn't totally unexpected, but we appreciate your thoughts!

A day of good and bad

What a day. As my title suggests, it has been a day of good and bad. Starting with bad....

BAD

Our dog Tottie had to be put down this morning. Granted, she was an old dog, but it is never an easy thing to do. She has been deteriorating over the past couple of years, but in the past 6 months or so, she has really gone downhill. On the weekend, she got caught up in one of the electric fences and had to go into the vet's to be sedated to get over it. This morning, it was likely that she took another stroke (she'd taken one a few months earlier) and she was just so disorientated and suffering. Mark's dad took her into the vet and Mark buried her in the backyard with the other dogs that have gone to the big dog kennel in the sky. The kids were matter a fact about it all...their farm kids. They know about life and death. Us adults were more distraught! RIP Tottie.

GOOD

We picked up our brand new car today. A Prado. After much deliberation and reading of car brochures and taking test drives, the GXL Prado won out. The reason of needing a new car was that we needed something to tow the caravan as Mark's Courier cannot fit 3 carseats in the back. and the Territory was not set up to tow. Plus it was time to change it over before it got too many kms on the clock. And also, we wanted something that would handle off road driving.

BAD

The Territory left us :( . I loved that car. I bought all my babies home from the hospital in that car. And after the morning that we'd had with the dog, leaving it at Toyota and driving away almost made me break into fresh tears. I felt like I was abandoning one of the family. I know that sounds stupid, but that's how I feel. I hope it goes to a good home with people that will love it like I do. Co-incidently, that photo of us in front of the car...it is the FIRST photo of all five of us together!! And the baby was 13 weeks on Monday!

BAD

I had to take Bella to the doctors today as she has been throwing up more than usual (she is a chucky little baby) and has been quite unsettled for the past couple of days and has more green phlegm than I think is good for a 13 week old. She just seems miserable and for the past month or so, is not really putting on a lot of weight.

GOOD

Doctor said that she may have a bit of reflux and that the opening out of her stomach maybe small and hence, the milk is able to sit there and then whoosh out when she is moved upright. Her temp was normal and he said her chest was clear. I have an appointment with our own doctor on Friday (bad shoulder....another story), and I have a health nurse visit on Thursday, so if she is still miserable and has not put on any/much weight, I will get him to check her out.

BAD

On arriving home from town, I discover a calf standing in the main yard. On the weekend, we lost a lot of trees due to gale force winds and some of them fell over electric fences. Turns out , the calves have worked out that the fences are not on and are pushing against them (doesn't take them long).

GOOD

The calf in back in the paddock and didn't get out onto the road.

So that's our day. Good and bad. I feel like I have not stopped today and now I have a headache. Quite frankly, the excitement of the new car hasn't overridden the loss of Tottie, so it hasn't been a great day. I'll be glad when it is over.

Much to Mark's horror.........

........Biddy is increasingly becoming a horsey girl! Ha ha ha. Whilst I wouldn't say that Mark is anti horses, he certainly can live without them in his life. So to have a daughter that seems to speak, breathe and live horses (even whilst not actually owning one), is just wrong in his books!

Fortunately for us, Mark's sister Libby does own horses and amongst them, a pony that is small enough for Biddy to ride (and add to that, it is lucky she lives almost next door). Back in May, we all went to Lib's place for afternoon tea on Mothers Day. Most of the little kids got a quick ride on the pony. Biddy spoke of nothing else for about a month. About 2 weeks ago, she again started banging on about riding the horse at Libby's, so I arranged a ride for her.

This may be the start of all things horsey for us.....but doesn't she look so pleased with herself? Brings joy to my heart!

The small things

I am feeling a bit happy today and it is all to do with a lump of wood. Yes, you read that right. Wood. Well, I think it's wood. Wood veneer at least. It is my new desk that actually is not really new.

Medium length version of the story is; when Mark renovated this house many years ago, a very small office was created off the front entranceway. Over the years, and with me now on the scene, it has become the office for EVERYTHING....studies, CFA, farm bookwork, entertainment and most recently, my Graceful Impressions office. We moved the farm stuff to another new office 2 years ago now, but the small alcove I have now taken ownership of, never got an overhaul. Old filing cabinets full of stuff we never use, an old student desk with drawers of stuff that haven't seen the light of day in YEARS, more technological equipment than a Dick Smith store trying to vie for room on the desk with my craft stuff......it just wasn't working.

About 12 months ago, I bit the bullet and bought a new desk with a return. 12 MONTHS AGO. I finally got fed up waiting for Mark to put it into the office, so mum and I cleaned it all out 2 weeks ago, stacking everything in the entranceway. As expected, Mark got sick of maneuvering around said stacks and decided he would put my desk together today. I don't think he realised just how long it would take him, but it is done now.

It is a very tight fit, but everything does fit nicely. In fact, there is little space for flies, dirt and small offcuts of paper to accumulate under furniture which will be refreshing! So now I just have to bring everything from the entranceway back to the office and find a nice spot for it.

As the title of the blog says, small things.........!!

In just 6 short months.....

Mark and I took Tom (and the girls) to St Mary's primary school in Colac for a walk through today. We put in an application a few weeks back for Tom to start prep and received a phone call last week informing us that he had been accepted into their prep class next year. Neither Mark nor I had actually been to the school, so before officially accepting the offer, we decided to have a visit and see the surrounds, the kids that are there and meet some of the teachers. It was really to get an overall impression and to see if it "felt" right for us and our family. Because let's face it...we have the girls to go through as well in a few years time.

I was so impressed with the school. St Mary's is a small school - only about 230 students all up - but it is big enough that the kids get to experience a range of opportunities. Like many schools here in Colac, St Mary's has recently benefited from a building stimulus package and is now sporting a new multipurpose room, library and grade 5/6 rooms.

The feel of the place fits in with our own family's values. It is nice to have something certain for Tom's (and Biddy's and Bella's) foreseeable future in the education sector. But oh my Lord.....off to school!!!! This has all just come around so fast. One minute he was a baby, the next we are discussing schools. This is the first step towards independence, towards not needing me all the time and it is scary as hell (for me!). And between you and me, I think a few tears will be shed over it all!

So.....look out St Mary's, here we come!

Thankyou

In this day and age, many congratulations are expressed "virtually" - that is, I mean that you tend to receive 'happy birthday', 'condolences' and 'congratulations' via the web, email or text messaging.

When we welcomed Bella into our lives, we received well wishes from many people in just these ways. Of course, we also received the "old fashioned" cards as well, which are great because you can hold onto these and cherish them in years to come.

For those that sent cards, we sent them this "thankyou" card. For those of you that sent well wishes via the internet, this is loaded on here for you. Thanks!